II. Life Today for
Women and Girls in Taliban-Controlled Areas

The accounts of women interviewed by Human Rights Watch show
that their freedoms are reduced as the insurgency gains strength in their
areas. These women all told Human Rights Watch that they had been happy to see
the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001. Most had since taken up their former
employment or new jobs, including as teachers, health workers, and civil
servants. While many said they already faced considerable pressure and
restrictions because Afghanistan is a conservative society, the restrictions
increase dramatically when insurgent groups gain more power.[32]

The forces of the Taliban and Hezb-i-Islami (Gulbuddin)
target women in a wide range of professions and at all levels, including
low-level civil servants.[33] They
have issued threats and carried out attacks on women who are provincial
councilors, police officers, teachers, health workers, social workers and
lawyers.[34] Men in
jobs associated with the government are also attacked, but women in public life
face additional threats–not only because they are more visible (as a
smaller group), but also because they are women working outside the
home, being seen in public, and mixing with men. Girls above primary school age
are also subject to a disproportionately higher level of threat than boys.

Attacks and Threats Against
Women Working Outside the Home

At present no organization has specifically researched and
reported on attacks on women in conflict areas by anti-government elements. The
following cases offer anecdotal evidence of the nature of threats,
restrictions, and violence that women suffer living in areas where militant
factions have gained some control.[35]

On April 13, 2010 a female aid worker, Hossai, age 22,
was shot in Kandahar as she left the offices of her employer, a for-profit US
development organization, DAI. She died the next day from her wounds.[36]
In the weeks preceding her death someone saying he was with the Taliban had
been calling her, warning her to leave her job. Hossai told relatives that she
did not think the threats were real.[37]

Night Letters

A common means of intimidation and control of local
communities by insurgents is the use of night letters–threatening letters
usually hand-delivered or posted to a door or mosque by insurgent groups, often
at night. Nadia N., who worked for an international NGO in a southern province,
received the following night letter soon after the killing of Hossai:

We would warn you today on behalf of the Servants of Islam
to stop working with infidels. We always know
when you are working. If you continue, you will be considered an enemy
of Islam and will be killed. In the same way that yesterday we have killed
Hossai, whose name was on our list, your name and other women’s names are
also our list.[38]

Nadia N. told Human Rights Watch that she believed that she
was targeted because she was working “outside the home.” She
informed the local security services, but said she expected no protection. She
resigned from her job, and has moved to another province.[39]

Many women, like Nadia N., above, told us of “night
letters” they’d received–written threats that are sometimes
addressed to communities, sometimes to individuals. Often letters refer to the
gender of the recipient.[40] Fatima
K. received this letter in February 2010:

We Taliban warn you to stop working
otherwise we will take your life away. We will kill you in such a harsh way
that no woman has so far been killed in that manner. This will be a good lesson
for those women like you who are working. The money you receive is haram [prohibited
under Islam] and coming from the infidels. The choice is now with you. [41]

The following translation is of a night letter sent to a
large number of homes in Kapisa province in late 2009[42]:

To all those girls who live in Kohistan 1 district of
Kapisa province and to those girls in particular who make telephone call to
radio stations and introduce themselves and request songs. Hereafter, they are
seriously warned that they should not call any local or international radios.
If anyone does it again, particularly girls, they will face serious
consequences: they will either be beheaded or acid will be thrown in their
faces.
From: The Islamic Brotherhood Group.[43]

Asma A., who was a teacher at a girls’ school in a
southern province, was sent a night letter with a Taliban insignia in October
2009 that forced her to leave her job. This is an excerpt:

We warn you to leave your job as a teacher as soon as
possible otherwise we will cut the heads off your children and we shall set
fire to your daughter.[44]

Jamila W. was threatened in August 2009, when she was
working with the local electoral commission, in a southern province. The letter
she received was also signed with a Taliban insignia.

…[Y]ou work with election office together with the
enemies of religion and infidels. You should leave your job otherwise we will
cut your head off your body. You will have no right to complain then.[45]

She told Human Rights Watch that she ignored the letter, but
several days later her father was murdered. Since then she has been terrified.
She resigned from her job, and has moved house.

Freshta S., a teacher in a southeastern province, was forced
to leave her job because of Taliban threats. She told Human Rights Watch:

The security situation deteriorated in the last three
years… In my village the Taliban distributed ‘night letters’
and warned that women cannot go out and work. If they go to work then they will
be killed. This scared me and my family and since then I have spent all my days
at home.[46]

Similarly, Madiha M. was working as
a teacher in an eastern province. More than a year ago she was forced by both
night letters and community pressure to give up her job.

I received a lot of threats. I got night letters to my
house. And the community where I was living, they also did not want me to work.
They also threatened us saying I should not go out and should not teach. So
finally I left my job.[47]

Rahela Z., who was working as a civil servant in a southern
province, received the following letter in mid 2009:

You are working with government and organizations. You are
warned by Taliban to stop working with them otherwise the Taliban’s court
shall make a decision about you, which would have severe consequences for you
and your family. You will lose your life.[48]

Loss of Employment

Many of those who were forced by Taliban threats to give up
their jobs said they found it hard to make ends meet. Hooriyah H. from an
eastern province said,

I was working with the [name of government program
withheld] one-and-a-half years ago. But after the threats that the Taliban were
giving to the people and me, I stopped working. They were distributing night
letters and giving warnings to the community elders saying that women are not
allowed to go out, questioning how the elders could allow women to work. I have
to feed my children. My husband also does not have work. We are in a very
difficult situation [financially].[49]

Talking about how challenging it is to work in her central
province, Hiba H., a government employee, said, “It is a very unstable
province with many districts under the control of the Taliban and they have
their own rules and regulations. So it is very difficult to work in those
areas.” In 2009 Hiba received many complaints from women in the region
about the Taliban distributing night letters warning them against leaving their
houses. “The last case I heard was a couple of months ago where they have
pasted these warnings on walls in different places,” she said.

Mursal A., who used to work in a southeastern province, told
Human Rights Watch that she had to give up a job she’d loved. She said
the threats are compounded by impunity:

I had to give up my job three years ago due to the threats
of the anti-government forces. I was receiving threatening phone calls and
night letters. They threatened that if I did not leave my job I would be
killed…. In my provinces there are many security problems for women. Here
women get killed but no one is held accountable.[50]

Latifiyah L. from a central province, said that after the
fall of the Taliban in 2001 she “felt like she was released from a dark
prison.”[51] She
trained in medicine and was keen to improve women’s health in her
village. “Unfortunately, my dream did not come true because of the
security problems for women,” she said. When many from her village in a
central province began to receive night letters from the Taliban, she
restricted her work movements. She said,

The Taliban again became powerful, which frightens me. The
Taliban are distributing night letters threatening girls and women not to work
out of homes. I don’t know what the Taliban will do to women if they become
more powerful. When I travel to the provincial capital, I try to go with my
brother or father…I also make sure that I don’t carry documents
with myself that can prove that I am a social worker. If the Taliban find such
documents they will definitely kill me.[52]

One of the reasons why working women are
targeted appears to be the strict Taliban ideology that demands gender
segregation and controls on women’s movement that were such a feature of
the Taliban era.

Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, one of the
founding members of the Taliban and the Taliban’s former ambassador to
Pakistan, was detained by the United States at Guantanamo after the
Taliban’s fall, and is now resident in Kabul. In an interview with told
Human Rights Watch in February 2010 he said that he still thinks it is
inappropriate for men and women to mix. When asked about what changes he might
anticipate for women’s current freedoms were the Taliban to regain some
political influence, he said:

Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef: [W]e should also think of the
negative aspects

of this freedom. Look at their corruption–the
integrity of women is at risk now.

In some NGOs–just go and see how they are treated and
see how they are

used. Go to the hotels where the women are employed and
their rights are

violated, and in private sectors where women are employed
and they are

misused. Go to Bagram and see how the American forces use
the women

there. This is corruption-so this aspect should also be
considered–as well as

the rights of women.

Interviewer: Moral corruption?

Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef: Moral corruption.

Interviewer: Because they are working together
with men?

Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef: Yes. It is against Islam. If you
put a young adult

man and woman
in one room for some time, of course there will be some

interactions,
which is against Islam. This is like a virus here and it will

Attacks on Girls’
Education

Girls’ education has been subject to proportionally
more violence than boys’ education. This includes threats and attacks on
female teachers and students, and targeted attacks on girls’ schools,
resulting in major disruption and denial of girls’ right to education.[54]

In February 2010 a girls’ school in a northern
province received the following night letter:

You were already informed by us to close the school and not
mislead the pure and innocent girls under this non-Muslim government; however
you did not pay attention and you are continuing to keep the school open. We
want to remind you that we are going to implement what we are saying, and we do
not want to discuss this. This is the last warning to close the school
immediately and put a lock on its door. We should not see you in the province
too. If you remain in the province, remember that you along with your family
will be eliminated. Just wait for your death. It will be a good thing to accept
our order. It depends on you.[55]

At the time of writing, the school remains open.

Since March 2009, night letters have been distributed in
numerous villages in Kunduz province, ordering female teachers and girls to
stop attending school. Unidentified armed men delivered the letters to girls’
schools and local mosques. Most bore the Taliban insignia and were signed by
the Taliban shadow governor. Although there are variations in orders from
Taliban to different schools in the area, the common restriction is that girls
should stop attending school past puberty (around fourth grade).[56]
The requirement that girls can only be taught by female teachers causes
additional problems in rural areas where there are chronic shortages of women
teachers.

Prior to the wave of threats and letters, there were
physical attacks on schools in the province. In 2008 and 2009 there were three
arson attacks, one rocket attack, and an improvised explosive device (IED)
planted at one school.[57]

In April 2010
more than one hundred girls and women teachers fell ill in Kunduz province, in
northern Afghanistan. At the time of writing, forensic tests have not
determined a possible cause of poisoning.[58] Abdul Moqim Halim, head of the Kunduz
Education Department, told Human Rights Watch that the incident was an attack
by “enemies of the people,” a phrase used by the Afghan government
to refer to insurgent groups. Kunduz parliamentarian Fatima Aziz said:

The enemy is attempting through this kind of action to keep
the young generation-particularly
the girls-in the darkness, and
deprive them from education. I hope families will not be threatened by this and
continue to let their daughters go to schools.[59]

There have been similar attacks reported in other parts of
the country. On May 4, 2010, 17 girls fell ill at Durkhani High School, in
Kabul, and were taken to hospital. A spokesman for the Ministry of Education,
Asef Nang, told reporters that “there
are destructive elements who don’t want girls to continue their education.”[60] In April and May 2009, 90 girls fell
ill at three schools in Kapisa province, including vomiting, dizziness and loss
of consciousness.[61] There was no claim of responsibility by
the Taliban or Hezb-i-Islami (Gulbuddin). It is not known what might have
caused the symptoms.[62]

In November
2008 Taliban members threw acid in the faces of a group of five girls on their
way to a school in Kandahar, leaving two girls badly disfigured.[63]

A number of the women interviewed by Human Rights Watch
living in Taliban-controlled areas also reported restrictions on their
daughters’ education. Freshta S. said in
January 2010 that she was forced to take her girls out of school in her eastern
province:

I cannot send my daughters to school because the girls’
schools are banned by the Taliban. We have received several threatening
messages from the Taliban through public announcements in the mosques and night
letters from the address of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan against girls’
education. For a mother like me, it is a real misery that my daughters cannot
go to school and we are not able to do anything.[64]

Girls and their families are not only frightened by
incidents that take place in their districts, but are affected by attacks in
other parts of the country, such as the November 2008 acid attack noted above,
and a 2007 attack in which unidentified gunmen killed two schoolgirls and
wounded six others in Logar province.[65] Fahima
R., an eighth grade teacher in Kapisa province told Human Rights Watch, “Every
time a girls’ school in Kandahar or anywhere in the country is burned, I
notice fewer girls in my classroom. I know parents fear that something will
happen to their girls on their way to school.”[66]

Elaha M., who herself was
threatened with night letters and forced to leave her job as a women shura
(village council) member, said, “Only my younger daughters can go
to school. If the security becomes worse then I cannot even send them to
school.”[67]

Some
women, like Suraya S., said that the Taliban are compelling parents to restrict
girls’ education to madrassas (Islamic schools), rather than government
schools.

My daughters are not allowed to go to school. The Taliban
said that if girls want to be educated, they should go to madrassas. My
daughters are now small but what about their future?[68]

An interview conducted on behalf of Human Rights Watch with
Mullah Abdullah, who described himself as a “spiritual leader of the
Taliban in Ghazni province”, explained why the Taliban targeted girls
schools: “We are opposed to un-Islamic educations for women. We close
those schools that teach adultery, nudity and un-Islamic behavior.”[69]

Silencing Women in
Politics

What does that sacrifice mean? If it means I have to wear a
burqa, and in exchange the whole country is at peace, we have bread, and
power?... For women I think it will be more than miserable. I don’t think
we will really get to the level of having stability and security–we will
just lose. Every women activist who has raised her voice in the last 10 years
fears they will kill us. I don’t know how otherwise they will treat us,
how they will deal with the existence of the women activists in society.

Women who are active in political life–including
parliamentarians and provincial councilors– face attacks and
intimidation. This has profound ramifications not only for the safety of women
who continue political work, but for their ability to continue to defend the
rights of all Afghan women and girls. It can also deter the next generation of
women leaders.

On March 6, 2010, unidentified gunmen attacked
parliamentarian Fawzia Kufi, the second time she has escaped an assassination
attempt.[71] On
April 5, 2010, Provincial Councilor Neda Pyani was seriously injured in a
drive-by shooting in Pul-e Khumri, Baghlan province.[72]

The government has barely mustered a response even when very
high-profile women are killed, attracting much media attention. It has never
brought to justice the killers of several prominent women in public life,
including Sitara Achakzai, Malalai Kakar, Zakia Zaki and Safia Amajan.[73]The fact that these assassinations go unpunished increases the
threat against women and compounds their fear. Although male politicians
have also been attacked, every attack on a high-profile woman has a multiplier
effect on other women in the same profession or region.[74]

Beyond physical attacks against women politicians, women
face constant verbal abuse and threats from their male counterparts while
working. Nuhaa N., an official involved in discussions about the Elimination of
Violence Against Women (EVAW) law, described how male parliamentarians hurled
insults at a woman parliamentarian who was defending the law. Nuhaa said,

She was arguing passionately for EVAW law. Some MPs said
she was un-Islamic and called her a prostitute. She retorted asking them
whether they would call their mothers or sisters prostitutes, to which one of
the MPs said, ‘They don’t work outside the house and are not
prostitutes.’[75]

This pressure threatens to increase if
extremely misogynist Taliban and Hezb-i-Islami (Gulbuddin) members are brought
into the political mainstream. Many of the women interviewed support
reintegration and reconciliation, but also expressed concerns
that threats and intimidation would only worsen after reconciliation.
Said one activist: “We have concerns, of course. We face too much
pressure now. What would they do if they were back to silence us?”[76]

The government’s failure to take
attacks and threats against women seriously greatly increases the threat that
women face, by creating a permissive culture for those who seek to silence and
sideline women.[77] Without a strong platform in government and society from which to
lobby for their rights, women’s advancement in Afghanistan will grind to
a halt. Their protection becomes all the more pressing if women are entering an
era that will become even more hostile to their rights–which
reintegration and reconciliation may create.

[32]
There is not a uniform pattern of abuse, but considerable variation in the
restrictions on women imposed by different insurgent commanders and factions.
For example, one education provider told Human Rights Watch that Hezb-i-Islami
commanders are more likely to impose conditions for girls’ access to
education, such as mahrams (male chaperones), female teachers, and
conservative Islamic dress, while some Taliban commanders have issued blanket
bans on girls not to attend school past puberty. Another interviewee said that
some Taliban commanders have been more responsive than others in responding to
community complaints about bans on girls’ education, with some modifying
their restrictions on conditions about dress and segregation.

[33]
This short report does not address the actions of the ‘Haqqani
network’, a highly active insurgent network in the southeastern and
eastern regions, with affiliations to both the Taliban and Al Qaida.

[34]
See Human Rights Watch, “We Have the Promises of the World”;Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, “Violence Against
Women 2009,” unpublished document on file with Human Rights Watch. These
figures show that between January and December 2009 there have been at least 22
complaints of attacks against women in public life, preventing them from
working (this figure comes only from women who chose to report attacks; many
more likely did not). Human Rights Watch interviews with women from three
central and eastern provinces, Afghanistan, January 15, February 14, and
February 18, 2010.

[35]
For further anecdotal reporting, see UN Assistance Mission Afghanistan (UNAMA),
“Silence is violence – End the Abuse of Women in
Afghanistan,” July 9, 2010, http://unama.unmissions.org/Portals/UNAMA/vaw-english.pdf
(accessed June 19, 2010).

[40]Human Rights Watch interviews with recipients of letters,
February and April 2010, and copies of letters on file. Some women interviewed
said that they were too afraid to share the letters with Human Rights Watch.

[42]
One regional source informed Human Rights Watch in May 2010 that the letter had
been sent to “hundreds” of homes, but it was not possible to verify
this.

[43]Copy of night letter given to Human Rights Watch by officials
in Kapisa province, February 2010. The Islamic Brotherhood (in Dari and Pashto
“Ekhwanul Muslimin”)is a name sometimes used by
Hezb-i-Islami.

[54]
An analysis of UNICEF/Ministry of Education data by Care International
suggested that in 2006 girls schools, which represented 19 percent of all
schools, were subject to 40 percent of attacks. Care International,
“Knowledge on Fire – Attacks on Education
in Afghanistan,” September 2009, http://www.care.org/newsroom/articles/2009/11/Knowledge_on_Fire_Report.pdf (accessed March 31, 2010), pp. 35-36.

[60]
“Female students at Durkhani high school in Kabul, Afghan capital,
poisoned after attending their Tuesday classes,” Quqnoos, May 4,
2010, http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=18e_1273001774 (accessed June 10, 2010).

[62]
Human Rights Watch interviews with human rights officials. Some have speculated
that hysteria is a possible explanation for the symptoms, though a senior government
official interviewed disagreed.

[67]
Human Rights Watch interview with Elaha M. (pseudonym), government employed,
central province, February 18, 2010. (The level of attack and restriction is
generally higher for girls who have reached puberty, which is the age at which
religious and cultural barriers start to be enforced, including ideas about
segregation and restricted movement of women.)

[77]
After years of sustained advocacy there are new legal protections available in
the Elimination of Violence Against Women (EVAW) law, issued by decree in July
2009, including a new committee in the Office of the Attorney General mandated
to monitor and investigate violence against women. However, these legal
protections will offer little change without effective enforcement, including investigations
and prosecutions of perpetrators of threats and attacks on women.